Carter: Parcel of land has Newark residents, city officials caught in a community squabble

View full sizeJennifer Brown/The Star-LedgerResidents of High Park Gardens in Newark want the the land where Douglass Harrison, a 6-story building that was demolished, once stood to be made into green space.

In Newark, a pretty good one is going on over city land and neither side in this spat is backing down.

The challenger is High Park Gardens, a feisty cooperative corporation of residents who anchored the heart of the Central Ward when it was saddled with blighted housing, notorious crime and the stigma of the 1967 riots.

They’re going up against the city of Newark, their councilman, Darrin Sharif, and residents the administration says supports its position.

The rift: what to do with 6.2 acres once occupied by Douglass Harrison, a run-down housing complex that helped bring down the neighborhood. Do you reserve the land for green space only, or should it be divvied up into new housing and park land?

It’s an easy answer for many High Park Garden residents. They want the green space they say was promised to them. They believe the area is too dense for more housing and the city should not blow this chance to carve out fitness trails and gardens where misery strangled the community for more than 20 years.

"You have this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have a 6-acre park,’’ said Charon Motayne, a Hyde Park resident and leader at the co-op. "We’re not going to find this acreage anywhere else in the city.’’

Resident Jacqueline Johnson remembers how High Park Gardens suffered living next to Douglass Harrison and Stella Wright, a public housing high-rise that failed and was demolished in 2002. Shootings, robberies, drugs sales and prostitution kept their neighborhood in the news.

Through it all, High Park Gardens residents made sure their three-story, 467-unit development stayed neat and attractive. In fact, Motayne said, the co-op has been the model of stable housing city officials highlighted when they sought federal funding to rebuild the community with townhouses.

The neighborhood is relatively quiet now. Credit High Park Gardens for that, because residents badgered the city to raze Douglass Harrison after it closed in 2004. When the last building fell last year, Motayne said residents could see the sunrise and sunset. A few blocks away peeking through the trees, there’s a church steeple that comes into view.

Mayor Cory Booker and Sharif give residents their props for being so passionate about their neighborhood, but they say much of the land will be park space. The city has picked a developer, Michaels Development Company of Marlton, and the plan is to build small and large parks on 4.6 acres of the property. On the remaining 1.6 acres, there will be a five-story senior citizen building and four townhouse buildings, each three stories high with 15 apartments.

"The challenge right now is that there is a balance that we all have to have between the urgency and the need for open and green space and the needs that we have for many of our vulnerable people in the city of Newark, especially senior citizens," Booker said. "I know in the end, they (High Park) are going to be very proud about what we build because its going to resonate with the spirit of their community."

The city has 88 letters from residents in support of its plans. Some empathize with High Park, but they don’t understand why they are so dead-set against it.

"It’s like they’re being selfish," said Jennifer Andrews. "Everything is so expensive nowadays. A lot of people are homeless."

High Park Gardens is not budging. Residents don’t get why the city needs this parcel, and they don’t think the city has been up-front with them.

View full sizeJennifer Brown/The Star-LedgerCharon Motayne stands on the parcel of land at the center of the dispute.

When the project came before the planning board, Motayne said, the developer had not applied to the state’s Green Acres program for required approvals. She also said residents were not aware of the city’s initial plans for the land when they learned about a request for proposal to build 400 townhomes. The request also included partial demolition or rehabilitation of the Douglass Harrison buildings.

"That’s why we are absolutely appalled,’’ Motayne said. "They just made a decision that that’s what they were going to do."

Michael Meyer, the city’s director of housing and real estate, said the city has been open about the process. He said the city scaled back the project to what it is now when many residents called for the buildings to be demolished.

But what about that promise to keep all of the land for open space? High Park Gardens residents say the pledge came out of many community meetings with the housing authority and city council members to close Douglass Harrison. The buildings, built in the 1930s, were once premier housing for middle-class blacks. They deteriorated into squalor in the 1980s.

"I want what was promised to us," Johnson said. "We support these city officials, then they come around election time and promise you the world and as soon as the election is over, they’re going to do what they want to do."

Booker knows High Park put up with a lot in the past, but he says he never promised a park — only that he would like much of the land to be green space. High Park residents, however, say otherwise. They’ve put a video clip on YouTube of Booker at a community meeting in 2006 where they endorsed him for mayor. In it, he says Douglass Harrison needs to be a park and green space.

Responding to the video, Booker said the needs of the community have changed.

"This project strikes a fair balance between many important policy goals for the city: affordable housing, jobs and preserving and improving the existing park space in this neighborhood."

Meyer said 40 percent of the jobs for the project must go to Newark residents and 30 percent of the contractors and subcontractors must be Newark companies. When the project is done, the city will still own the park, but the developer has to maintain it for 30 years.

Councilman Sharif said the social service component for seniors and families strengthens the community, something that was missing when Douglass Harrison was there.

"Moving this (project) somewhere else wouldn’t reduce the need for affordable housing," Sharif said. "When it’s fully completed, people will enjoy the park and they will say ‘What was all the fuss about?’ "